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Ask HN: Building a side project that makes money. Where to start?

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Re: Ask HN: Building a side project that makes money. Where to start?

#211

Post by fuzzybeard »

skdotdan wrote: post #161

Instead of building an MVP and then trying to sell it, there are people who suggest: 1-Think of an idea. 2-Make a simple landing page with a mockup or something. 3-Try to sell the product. And by selling the product I mean actually selling it (so people actually transferring you money). If you can achieve a given amount of sells in a given amount of time (important: set concrete goals with concrete timing), then you…

What you describe is smoke testing. However, taking money and not having a product is considered fraud in the US. The way you get around this is that on the final confirmation page where you would normally take payment details you instead say the product is on backorder but that the person can enter their email to be notified when it's available. That'll give you the stats you need without running afoul of the law or dealing with payment gateways for payments you are not really accepting.

Re: Ask HN: Building a side project that makes money. Where to start?

#212

Post by herbst »

yodon wrote: post #10

If your goal is to make money, don't allow yourself to write a single line of code until you have talked to people not related to you (and not close friends with you), heard at least two of them independently describe facing the same business problem, and heard both of them say "yes, that would help!" (or better "yes, I would buy that!") in response to your proposed solution. Finding a real business problem and a rea…

I have 2 SaaS. One that fit this advice and one that didn't. The one that did is a year old without a sale. The one that I had no one in mind that would pay for it was profitable from month one. However both were bigger weekend projects I wouldnt spend much more than that on it

Re: Ask HN: Building a side project that makes money. Where to start?

#213

Post by blizkreeg »

skdotdan wrote: post #161

Instead of building an MVP and then trying to sell it, there are people who suggest: 1-Think of an idea. 2-Make a simple landing page with a mockup or something. 3-Try to sell the product. And by selling the product I mean actually selling it (so people actually transferring you money). If you can achieve a given amount of sells in a given amount of time (important: set concrete goals with concrete timing), then you…

If you've never tried it and don't know how to make it work, why give that advice?

Re: Ask HN: Building a side project that makes money. Where to start?

#214

Post by dpark »

hyperliner wrote: post #200
dpark wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I actually meant that you always had to make very clear that the product doesn't exist yet. That wasn't clear to me. It looked like you were proposing the sale of a nonexistent product. If you're openly and clearly stating that it's basically a preorder, then sure, that's fine. That sounds like a tough sale, though.

It's only a fraud if you take the money and never deliver it. If you don't take the money or deliver within the stated parameters, how is it fraud? Many business sell product they don't have. It's a standard practice in some businesses such as when you don't take delivery of the product as a seller, or when you use someone else's inventory, etc.

> If you don't take the money or deliver within the stated parameters, how is it fraud?

I already answered that in the comment you replied to: "If you're openly and clearly stating that it's basically a preorder, then sure, that's fine."

Re: Ask HN: Building a side project that makes money. Where to start?

#215

Post by fuzzybeard »

kaskavalci wrote: post #144
joelrunyon wrote: post #75

Listen to http://sidehustleschool.com - it's a story every day about someone who did just this.

I immediately exit websites which want to notify me and ask for my e-mail after 1 seconds I spend on that site. Bad marketing.

Agreed. I never saw it thanks to NoScript.

Re: Ask HN: Building a side project that makes money. Where to start?

#216

Post by davidjnelson »

ryandrake wrote: post #138

Surprised this has not been mentioned yet: Make sure your current employer is cool with side projects and moonlighting. Very few companies I've worked for are OK with it, even if done completely with personal equipment/time. You don't want to build the next Facebook in your free time and get fired over it or have your current employer claim IP ownership of it.

This is something that makes California such a force for entrepreneurship. The law says you can build things in your spare time with your own equipment and it belongs to you.

Re: Ask HN: Building a side project that makes money. Where to start?

#217

Post by davidjnelson »

hoschicz wrote: post #64
davidjnelson wrote: post #15

A simple way to make $100+/month is writing short books, articles, and giving away things like software and putting adsense ads on the site.

Do you have any experience with this?

Yes, feel free to email me at the address in my profile if I can help.

Re: Ask HN: Building a side project that makes money. Where to start?

#218

Post by j_s »

davidw wrote: post #205
j_s wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW: If you're asking about marketing after you've built a product, you're doing things in the wrong order. That's why I've included Rob's Start Small, Stay Small as one of core ideas is market validation. From a review: "not about coding but about [finding] a great niche, building a product that executes at a plateau and make it run automatically" "The other resource I'd recommend is the one I'm releasing in ~3 wee…

Rob's book is a bit old at this point, but I'd heartily recommend it just the same.

Yes, it's easily worth the $10 before starting anything; the rest might pay off more once there's a product.

Re: Ask HN: Building a side project that makes money. Where to start?

#219

Post by dnh44 »

skdotdan wrote: post #183
dpark wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I actually meant that you always had to make very clear that the product doesn't exist yet. That wasn't clear to me. It looked like you were proposing the sale of a nonexistent product. If you're openly and clearly stating that it's basically a preorder, then sure, that's fine. That sounds like a tough sale, though.

I was proposing the sale of a nonexistent product, but making clear that it doesn't (already) exist and telling properly how it will look like. Also, this product should be feasible to do in, say, less than a month. So, it's kind of a preorder, but a cancellable (by the seller, obviously by the customer too) one. It's a very tough sale, but precisely for that is a way of discarding business/side projects ideas in a m…

It'd be easier to just use kickstarter for that.

Re: Ask HN: Building a side project that makes money. Where to start?

#220

Post by zazpowered »

grow91 wrote: post #142

I started a side project last year and it's been a fantastic experience. It's an opportunity to "scratch an itch" that the day job can't provide (which for me is doing whatever I want). I had some frontend dev skills but didn't have the backend chops, so I hired someone on Upwork. I'm pretty busy at work so getting someone else involved is key (If I was by myself I'm not sure I would have stuck with it). It's been a…

What's the app if you dont mind sharing. Or at least a vague idea of what it is
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